Those Other Guys
by Doppler Effect
Summary: Sequel to Those Guys We Forgot About? The five units trained by Cub go on their first two missions against Scorpia. At the same time, Cub gets his vengeance for something unrelated to Scorpia...
1. Chapter 1

a/n: This is the long-named sequel to Those Guys We Forgot About? Think of it this way. I started typing this chapter on All Hallow's Eve (I call it that, but the more common name is Halloween). So even though there's going to be a lot of chapters updated at once, I think it's better than if I had updated them when I finished them.

I think some of you misunderstood what I had originally said. The intention had been for you all to give me ideas for another story, not a sequel. This offer is over, by the way. I'm bogged down with other stories on collaboration projects. Well, whatever. I guess in a way you did give me another idea.

I don't own Alex Rider.

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><p>The Scorpia agent looked around himself, an angry expression on his face. Both hands were tied behind his back, and he assumed they had surveillance on the cell he was in as well. The FFSAS unit that had found him had shot him with a drug, and when he'd woken up he'd been here. He was not looking forward to his assassination, which he was sure would be painful. Scorpia did not take kindly to its operatives failing, and he had done just that. He expected to be killed any time now.<p>

The door opened, and a soldier from the unit walked in with a cocky stride. He closed the door behind him, and knocked once on it. It must've been some sort of signal, because the agent heard the door lock. The man continued towards him, and squatted a few feet away, far enough from him that it would be hard to knock him out in one blow from the distance.

"Hi. I'm Jackal, in charge of-"

"D-Unit. Unit leader and interrogator of the group," the operative finished.

Jackal smiled slightly. "I'd feel underrated if you'd said anything else. We ran your prints through the system. Scorpia's started to erase your existence since you just joined up, but they didn't finish in time before we were able to get your identity. Our techies had way too much fun competing with your techies for info. Anyway, I'm not even going to really bother asking questions. You know what we want to know, and you know the answers, so I'm just going to let you talk."

Five minutes of silence passed.

"Hm. Well. We'll be sure to take that into consideration. Thank you for your time, Adam Watson." Jackal sat down on the ground. He knew he couldn't squat forever. Even though he'd said a phrase usually succeeded by a departure, he didn't move.

Ten more minutes passed. Jackal was humming an unfamiliar tune. "How'd you find out where we were?" Watson asked.

Jackal's half smile returned. "I'll tell you that, but you've got to tell me something in return. It'll be a question you can answer, and if not, say so and I'll ask something else." The other man considered it for a few seconds before hesitantly nodding. "Okay. Well, we found out about this island you got from an excellent source; someone who trained here. Bet you can guess from there who I'm talking about."

Narrowed eyes looked back at him. "Rider. He spilled the beans on us."

Jackal shrugged. "Yeah, basically. My turn now. What can we give you that you would like in return for more information? I can keep answering questions and asking, but I'll bet there's a point where you're not going to want to answer."

Watson nodded, not having to think for a second about what he wanted. "When I finish answering your questions I want someone to shoot me. Scorpia will get me if you don't, and my death will be a demon's nightmare."

Jackal gave a resigned sigh. "Rider told us as much. Sorry you got into this." He waited, pausing to allow Watson to ask the next question.

"Why's FFSAS here? The espionage guys are usually the ones we're fighting against. You work in terrorism, true, but to stop a Scorpia op you need info."

Jackal gave a small laugh. "The espionage guys feed us intelligence. For something as big as storming one of their training areas, they wanted the ones doing the fighting to be able to go in and kick some serious ass, not talk everyone to death. Also, the espionage guys aren't the ones being given lectures by Rider."

Watson opened his mouth to ask something, but Jackal gave a cock of his head, reminding him that the unit leader was next in line for questioning. "How much are you willing to disclose about Scorpia?"

Watson looked at him in disbelief. "Rhetorical question: When are you going to get to the real questioning? There's nothing I'm not willing to say about the organization. I've only just gotten out of training, and their motives don't particularly appeal to me. They just paid extremely well, and they produce the best assassins. If I do something, I want to be one of the best at it. You're psychology guys will have fun with that," he added in a mutter. Continuing on, he said, "Anything you need to know about them, I'll tell you if I know."

Jackal almost asked something, but a teasing smile from Watson told him otherwise. Instead he sighed with a light grin and said, "Alright, thanks. Your question?"

"Why did Rider decide to teach the FFSAS of all people? I mean, they never really did anything with Scorpia before now."

"He told us the FFSAS sergeant at Brecon Beacons wanted a teacher for Scorpia, and Rider was the only person who was really able to teach. Of course, he made the training exercises hell and found way too much delight in using us as punching bags in examples, but we've still learned a lot from him."

Watson shook his head, smiling. "He carried over Scorpia's training then."

Jackal's next smile was humorless. "That's just great to know. I guess we're learning a lot about you by going through something similar though. What spies or bugs do you know about that are in the FFSAS?"

Watson shrugged. "I don't know anything about-" His face lit up. He grinned. "Ah. I do know something else that you would find very interesting."

The FFSAS man waited.

Watson shook his finger. "You asked what I know about the bugs or spies. Are you sure there's no other reason why your units are here?"

Jackal smirked. "FFSAS wouldn't have sent us in or volunteered us until the higher ups were sure we could do it, since they don't want to make a bad impression about what we can do in terms of Scorpia, but Rider wanted to put us to the test. He got all his students together and shipped us out here to do our first operation against you."

"Having fun?"

"That your next question? Never mind. Yeah, I'd say we're having fun. Everything's gone right for once. Nobody's even died. Kid trained us well."

"Cool." Watson looked considering for a second. "Against us, that's saying something."

"That it is. Now, what was your interesting piece of information?"

"Get me a map of the surrounding area."

"How big?"

"I don't know, big, small. A lot of the surrounding area."

Jackal returned a few minutes later with a bunch of maps. Watson pointed out several areas, telling him about people inside of it who knew all the spies and where the bugs in the FFSAS were placed.

The two continued talking for hours. Jackal finally left, bearing plenty of helpful information.

Outside of the hallway, he immediately met up with Rider. "Heard it went well," he noted, holding up the device he'd been using to listen to the interrogation. "The guys are planning out more raids in the kitchen if you want to join them."

Jackal raised an eyebrow. "The kitchen?"

"Their reasoning was 'who would put a bug in there?' Plus, they put a bunch of stuff in there to deflect any sounds they make and mess with radio signals, so it's pretty safe right now. Anything the Scorpias pick up will make them think the only thing going on in there is cooking."

"Cooking for a devious scheme, yeah."

Rider smirked. They were now walking to the kitchen. "I wouldn't have brought up you kiddies right if you were cooking a plan with butterflies and sparkles and kinds words."

Jackal rolled his eyes. "Seems like we got a new recruit. Watson changed his mind halfway through, and surreptitiously asked if he could join the FFSAS."

Rider laughed. "I heard. Damn, we should have you interrogate everyone we come across."

Jackal paused. "Why are we talking about stuff like this in the halls where there could be bugs?"

"Because through the information Watson gave us we were able to block out any possibilities of information being picked up by bugs. When we get to the kitchen we need to tell them they can stop sitting on flour and whatnot that fell on the floor."

"Ah. Sweet. So that's what you all were doing while we were in the room..."

"What, you thought we were sitting on our asses, anxiously awaiting your arrival?"

"With my amazing leadership? Why not?"

They arrived in the kitchen a few minutes later. Some of the guys sitting on the floor waved, but others just sat their grumpily. The cooks had to jump over them to continue preparing food, and the men simply ducked or shifted their weight to get out of the way. Laptops, maps, and other things were scattered over the floor around the men. Luckily, not everyone was in there. They wouldn't have fit. They were elsewhere, checking equipment and cleaning weaponry, or checking security films.

Rider motioned to the B-Unit leader to break the news they had brought with them. Jackal willingly stepped forward, and stated cheerfully, "Who wants to move to the lounge, eh?"

"We don't have a lounge!"

Jackal rolled his eyes. "Off the kitchen floor, I mean."

"Yeah, get 'em out of here!" one of the cooks said, shaking an egg beater.

"Do we even have eggs?" Rider asked, eyeing the beater. The cook glanced at it and shrugged in response.

"Anyway," Jackal said, redirecting everything, "we bleeped out any bugging through some scientific method. Tell the techies thanks when you see them," Jackal continued as the men stampeded out past him, grabbing their stuff as they left and shaking stuff off their butts. The cooks chased them out with beaters and rolling pins and forks and spoons.

* * *

><p>"These are all the planned raids we're going to be doing over the next three nights," Wolf said, having taken up the briefing. He waved a hand at the maps and plans in front of him. "Tonight, units B and C will be knocking out two crucial communication posts, and F and G will be taking out two others."<p>

"Meanwhile, K-unit stays behind and makes paper rabbits," Cougar yelled out. Months ago, that would've been an excuse for an argument. Now, after Cub's harsh training, all the units had become closer than ever.

Wolf threw a handy water bottle at him. Cougar dodged it in time to let Terradactyl get hit in the face. The unit leader got him in a headlock from behind. The K-Unit leader ignored them and continued on with the briefing. "We're on guard duty and backup. During the day all of us will be working on our... 'special'..." the men listening gave meaningful looks to each other, smirking and raising their eyebrows, "project. Tomorrow night, C-unit gets the guard duty, K-unit gets to take an outpost out, and G-unit can play backup, F-unit will continue working on the 'special' project with B-unit."

"Who'll be doing the guard shifts during the rest of the time?" Viper asked.

Wolf gestured past him, and Rider waved as they all glanced at him. "Our loving teacher has been kind enough to volunteer during the day time, since we'll be working on the project. Assuming nothing's gone wrong yet through all that, our third night will hopefully follow suit. F is guard, B is backup, K and C are running two consecutive raids, and G is working on the project. For further briefing on tonight's raids, Swan-ah, Badger,"-the other unit leader rolled his eyes-"will be letting you in on that. Questions?"

"When should our project be done?" Falcon asked, obviously eager to see it finished.

"If we keep up this pace, about a week, maybe a week and a half." A few people groaned. "We've been at it for a while now, I know, but this isn't exactly something you finish up in an hour. Anything else? Alright, Sw-hey, I'm catching it faster. _Badger_'s going to take it from here."

Wolf moved to the back of the room, and Badger moved up to take his place. He jumped straight into his own talk, running over all operations that would be going on and thoroughly going through them. Discussions broke out about how each place would be attacked and cleared, and plans formulated.

Rider watched on, expression blank. Wolf stared at him out of the corner of his eye, observing their mentor. He had randomly gathered them all in the barn one day and stated that they would be going out to a Scorpia position to wreak some havoc and further train. This would give them proof about how far along they were instead of just better results in the shooting range, the obstacle course, and just about everything else. This was what they had been waiting for, and they all eagerly jumped up at the chance. In days, they had been loaded out to where they were now.

They had spent a month taking out all Scorpia within a preselected area, and had taken one of their buildings as their own. They'd cut down most communications already, but more had been rebuilt again. Some reinforcements had come in, but the FFSAS had done their best to shoot them out before they could fall in with the stationary Scorpia. Other operations had been performed, and so far all casualties had been minor.

Cub had simply been there as a supervisor, watching what they were doing. Occasionally he had to use his status to clear something they needed to do or approve an operation, but he did his best to stay out of everything. Sometimes someone would ask him for advice on something and he would give it. He still remained a friend and ally for them in a higher position to all of them.

The last months had certainly provided a new insight to the teen. Even though he was the youngest of everyone at BB, he acted as another family member, even another parent, to all of them. Wolf knew that several attacks from speculative superiors had been blocked by him, and he had taken several hits. The unit leader felt a pang as he realized this was a strong indicator of just how much he didn't want to go back to working for MI6 in the field.

All of this and more combined allowed Wolf to see the small light of pride in Alex Rider's eyes as he watched his family plan out operations.

The moment of insight vanished as Falcon and Eagle led a raid against everyone else by pulling confetti out of their pockets and throwing it at everyone. Boar yanked out a trash bag full of more strips of paper and started hitting his unit with it, spraying more confetti all over the ground. Wolf rolled his eyes, starting towards the door to avoid having to shake his clothes out later.

Until Eagle dumped a full bag right over his head.

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><p>an: Note that I'm going to mention later: This mass update is done because I decided I would post a whole story on my anniversary of when I got an account on this site. You're welcome. This doesn't mean that I don't expect reviews.


	2. Chapter 2

a/n: I went back and forth on what I would call this story, and even while I'm typing this a/n (this I had everything typed out before hand... hehe...) I don't know. As of right now, it's Those Other Guys We Remembered But Didn't Really Care to Think About? Don't know if that'll change or not, but it's up to the poll. (It's down _now_ since the story's up, but it was up before.)

Reminder: This story is being posted all at once because it's my anniversary of making an account on this site. Don't ask me to do it again. It was hell to meet the time, since I felt I had more time than I had.

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><p>Three nights of raids later, and they were back to the drawing board. With Scorpia's ever-changing plans, especially with so many of their ideas going out the window with the FFSAS's increased pressure, they couldn't plan very far ahead. Their luck had held out, and no one had received more than a glancing shot. All joked that it was because Rider was there (They didn't know, but some miles away, Scorpia operatives were also blaming it on him). He continued to supervise, watching everything through seemingly emotionless eyes.<p>

Now, with the cooks on guard duty, since the cooks were all men from the military and simply taking a leave from their normal work, the FFSAS units were sprawled around the 'briefing room'. It's original state when they had arrived had been a simple but large room with several tables, maps, foldable chairs, and a few other simplistic things were the only objects in the room. Slowly, other raids had been done other than the normal. Some pillows were dropped in by different people. A few days after, someone snuck in a spare bed mattress by shoving it through the door. It was quite the surprise when the next day it was found halfway through the door. A unit decided the hell with secrecy, and carried in two couches. The day after found a futan sitting next to them. This was followed by some better tables than they had originally had. 'Something' happened to all the foldable chairs, and the plastic table broke when two guys fell on it during one of the regular bouts that came up. This was a wonderful excuse, even though they hadn't been using excuses to begin with, and sturdier tables were carried in.

By the time everything that they had wanted in there had been brought in to sit on or use, three combined tables were in the center for operations being planned, a table was in the front right corner for operations going on in the next few days, one was in the back right for operations completed, and another was in the back left for food. Everyone who wanted to could sit, and the couches and futans ringed the pillows and mattress in the center of the room.

The food table was occupied by Eagle sitting cross-legged on it, and Falcon and Boar were both leaning on it. Other than that, the units had all chosen spots near their own members. C-unit had taken the futan and a couch, and B-unit sat on the pillows. G-unit was scattered between a couch and some pillows next to F-unit. Alex was watching everything, sitting on the frame of a couch like your parents tell you not to in case it breaks. Ben sat a little bit away, out of range of his feet if he decided to kick him for the hell of it. The rest of K-unit other than Eagle was on the arm of the couch and the remaining cushion. Some of the cooks who weren't on their shift took up the remaining spots to hear what would be going on.

As of now, all were waiting for someone to stand up and take charge of the assembly. Before, it had been whoever hadn't been in charge yet was shoved up, but they'd gone through all the leaders and anyone who had a chance of taking the meeting seriously. Five minutes passed with hushed voices, and Eagle had to relocate to sit in front of his unit's couch when someone had the wise decision to use the table for what it was meant for.

"Don't make me get up there," Cub said as the ten minute mark passed. All the units immediately switched their topic of conversation to deciding who would go up.

Unfortunately, no one acted fast enough to beat the child.

Eagle bounced up from his spot, and Wolf's grabbing hand missed as he tried to make him sit back down. "I'll do it!"

"No!" more than half the room yelled simultaneously. He ignored them, jumping up to lead the meeting. As no one else wanted to go up to stop him, as that would mean volunteering themselves, he stood there unchallenged.

Somehow, apart from the random but inevitable cracks he made, Eagle led the meeting pretty well for a first-timer. He got through a basic lay-out for plans for the next three nights about targets, and started to move on to specifics for that night's raids about how they would be done and by whom. By the time the official lunch time came around, they'd gotten most of what they needed to get done finished.

"Now, to our evil scheme..." Eagle rubbed his hands together. Falcon snickered. Wolf rolled his eyes at the exaggeration. Cougar kicked him to get him to continue. "Ow! So it sounds like it should be done by the end of this week instead of a week and a half. The basics will be, anyway. The problem will be getting it through the woods without being discovered. Do we have any ideas?"

"You even have to ask?" Jackal replied.

"Oh boy," Leopard muttered to Viper.

"Waitwaitwait!" Falcon exclaimed in a rush, standing. He pointed at Rider. "Shouldn't he leave?"

"Why?" he asked skeptically.

But Eagle nodded. "Right. He should."

"Why?"

Jackal caught on. "Yeah, definitely. Oi, teacher. Shoo."

He gave him a look. "Why?" he asked again.

"So that it's a surprise," Boar said, waving his hands mystically.

Terradactyl rubbed his head with his hand. "Of course," he muttered.

"So that it's a _surprise_? What kind of reason is that?"

"A very good reason I'm sure. Do you mind?"

The eager faces of the clowns looked at him.

"I'm not going to come back and find bunnies all over the place am I?" he said doubtfully.

Eagle smiled innocently. "Of course not."

Rider shook his head. "Okay, I'm gone. Whatever you're about to do, I will have no relation to it. Just try not to annoy our superiors too much, would you?" He swung his legs around the back of the couch, successfully hitting Fox in the back of the head even though he ducked, and dropped onto the ground. The door closed behind him as he walked out.

They waited for a minute before Warrigal, the closest to the door, opened it and checked the hall. He gave a thumbs up and closed the door.

Hawk rubbed his hands together. "Now. What shall we do?"

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><p>When the meeting came to a conclusion, and they split off into groups to further go over any raids they had for the night, almost none of them spotted their teacher throughout the halls. As he constantly went invisible, they didn't worry. They should have.<p>

K-unit finished their run through of what they would do, and split off from each other. Wolf wanted to talk to the other unit leaders, Eagle wanted to go do... something, Fox wanted to get something to eat, and Snake wanted to check on their captives. With Scorpia, you could never be too careful.

He turned the corner to go down the hall that would lead him to those rooms, but quickly took a step back to avoid collision. Cub sidestepped, a bit surprised they'd finished up so fast. "Checking up on them too?" Snake asked.

"Yeah. Turns out, I recognize some of them. Trained with two, and worked with another five later on a mission."

"Huh. Did they say anything else?"

"Nah, I didn't speak to them. That probably would've ended in one of us trying to kill the other. They don't get along well with people who have left of their own will."

"People can leave from Scorpia not of their own will?"

"Yeah. They can die."

"Ah. Right."

"That tends to be the preferred method, since most of the people who leave get caught again and tortured to death."

"Charming."

"Completely. They're all in the same places, by the way. Unless they moved an inch or something, but I hope they're moving or that means they probably had a cyanide tablet."

"You think of the happiest things."

"Yeah. I should get an award. What evil did you all come up with upon my departure?"

"I have been sworn into silence, I'm sorry," Snake said, a slight smile coming to his face as he remembered what they had planned.

Rider looked at him. "Uh oh."

"That about sums it up."

"Am I going to catch hell for this?"

"Maybe some letters of 'What the hell are you guys doing over there?', but that should be it."

"Great, better than normal. Ir's usually 'Why'd you shoot So-and-So', or 'Get over here so we can riddle your body with holes', or the best one, 'We need to dismantle your guts and string them across our public schools right after we torch your ass off and dump your head in the Pacific thirty times' plus a few other creative threats."

At some point, both had ended up leaning against the wall, not facing each other.

"You meet the nicest people."

"I do. Always wanting to do things for me, like untangling my intestines and what not."

There was a comfortable moment of silence.

And then Snake dropped a question he'd been meaning to ask for a while. "Do you prefer teaching us over your usual work in espionage? Or would you prefer to go back? I know you wanted to stay, and the sergeant pulled some strings to allow you to, but do you still feel the same?"

Rider snorted. "Snake, the only people shooting at me here are people with paintball guns." He paused. "Well, the only people shooting at me at Brecon Beacons. Here they're pretty pissed off. I like it here a lot better. I'm a little surprised how much fun I'm having teaching all of you, but..." Snake didn't speak, but without words pressed him to finish. "I hope I'm teaching you all what you need to know to stay alive."

Snake rolled his eyes. "Kid, we're elite forces. We were even before you got here. We don't have any plans to roll over and die. Why're you so worried about us?" In an added mutter, he said, "And people call me a mother hen."

His teacher smiled a bit. "Guess it's 'cause people protect their families."

"You have a really dysfunctional family then, you know that?"

"It's occurred to me, yes. Scorpia took out my original family, so you guys are basically it."

Snake looked at him. "That was about the most depressing thing I've heard, and you just deadpanned it."

"I try my best," Rider said, shooting him a small smile.

"Your best is a bit scary."

"Of course, why wouldn't it be? Getting back to your original question, I'm not leaving the FFSAS anytime soon to go back to MI6. I like working with you all a lot more, and I never have to come in and deal with doubtful people who don't think I can work with them. Not to mention FFSAS didn't blackmail me into working with them," the teen said.

"But you're still in the military. People get killed in _training_ for God's sake*."

"They don't get killed if they work their hardest and pay attention, and that's what I do. It's not like I can go back to my school anyway. I'll never be able to after all this, so what else would I really do?"

Snake didn't speak for a second before saying, "Your life really sucks, doesn't it?"

He was rewarded with a hearty laugh.

* * *

><p>*Unfortunately, this is true. My uncle was a drill sergeant, and a bullet exploded. A shard went into his eye, and he had to get surgery done. My cousin, his son, followed in his foot steps, and said that someone broke their neck in an obstacle course.<p>

a/n: I have plans for this story. Mwahahaha. (Although they're all done now.) Now, I ask you, why is it that I'm able to plan out what's going to happen with this story but I could never finish writing Not All that is Over is Past? Sheesh.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm going to try this new method of a/n's which i made up. But that's unimportant. I don't own Alex Rider. NONRHETORICAL QUESTION: Do I have to keep saying that, or does the site immediately make it a disclaimer? If anyone knows I would like to as well, because that way I can know if I don't have to keep repeating it.)))

;';^;';

A week after his talk with Snake found Rider sitting in the kitchen. He'd been kicked out of the briefing room again, as they had started discussing their evil scheme again. It'd been around lunch, leading Wolf to find him where the food was. Spy or not, FFSAS training instructor or not, he was a growing teenager. That was the excuse, but Wolf had yet to see him grow an inch.

"Well, the wise one was right as always," Eagle said behind him. Cub looked up, setting a dish in the sink. He waved, and then headed over to them.

"Right about what?" he asked, and the three turned into the hallway.

"I said we'd find you in there," the 'wise one' responded. "And I was right as always."

"Did you realize you needed my presence again?" Cub asked. "Are you all fresh out of ideas?"

"Two things, and neither require your smart mouth or wit." Cub grinned at the response, and Wolf continued. "The first is that the rest of the guys are ready to put our plan into action, and the second is that HQ sent a message down to remind you that the new guys are coming in."

Cub seemed to contemplate that for a second, and said, "What's that mean?"

Wolf raised an eyebrow. "You mean the new guys?"

"It means," Eagle explained, finger in the air like he was a college professor teaching something, "that fresh meat has passed Selection and will be joining our ranks."

Cub rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know. What's that got to do with me?"

"They want you to teach them."

The teen frowned. "Damn. I'm going to have to run things by the higher ups again."

"Don't want to take on another group?" Wolf guessed. They turned the corner, heading to the briefing room. Not many people walked the halls, as they had other things to be doing, and their footsteps and voices were the only sounds other than the occasional whir of the ventilation system.

"I haven't finished your training yet, and it would make things harder to take on a new group at the same time I'm teaching all of you. Did they mention how many people I'll be teaching?"

"You can read the message yourself," Eagle snorted, pushing open the door. The other two walked in ahead of him, and he shut it behind him. "Oi! Everybody! Our teacher has made his arrival! To business!"

He was immediately pushed into the center of everybody while Wolf and Cub took their seats. Ever since his first attempt at running the briefing, Eagle had been officially elected the briefer. It had been against his will, as originally it had just been a joke, but everyone else was serious while carrying dry humor. Their briefings were too boring when anyone else did it, so the others said.

"Coyote, pass the reminder from Hell over to him, would you?" Eagle said as all talking started to die down. The man he pointed out handed the printed out paper to Terradactyl, who in turn gave it to Cub. He pocketed it, planning to read it later.

Everyone continued to watch him.

"What?" he asked, eyeing them.

"We're waiting for you to tell us we're not going to have to deal with the newbies if you have to teach them," Coyote deadpanned.

Cub rolled his eyes, but took out the sheet of paper. "Alright, 'Dear Mr. Rider,'- oh God, they're actually dealing with formalities for once- 'We'-who's 'we'? They never explain that- 'thought it best to inform you that the Selection will soon be turning out a new batch of recruits for the FFSAS.' -It's the FFSAS Selection, who else would it be turning people out for? McDonald's?- 'We also think that one of their first classes in the Special Air Service should be an introduction to the class you teach.' " He looked up at his current pupils with a look that made most of them laugh. "My 'class'? You mean my murder school? My introduction for you all was like a week of Halloween, without the candy and costumes. It would eat them. 'As soon as your current mission is over with,' -Idiots. The second they sat, I'll make this last as long as possible.- 'you need to start preparing a class for your new students.' -They're finally getting to where they need to be. Finally." He glanced down at the last line of the body of the letter.

He raised an amused eyebrow.

" 'If this would be an undesired possibility'-no crap, Sherlocks- then a mission will be presented for you and your men.' Alright, we can deal with this later," Cub said, smiling, motioning them out the doors. "We'll continue laughing at them once you get back."

* * *

><p>The Scorpia HQ of the area, still standing strong, was simultaneously amused and unamused. They were obviously furious about the quick depletion of their nearby sources, but pleased that any attack against the stronghold had yet to be made. Video cameras were all clean, and nothing had slipped past the rest of their security. Any attack from FFSAS would have to come from a lot more units than they currently had in one of their taken bases.<p>

Their base was at Glacier National Park, Montana, U.S.A.* This placement had been chosen because it was a blow to America's special forces, and it would be harder to take out. The cold weather and terrain knocked out many strategical attacks that could otherwise be used.

The arrival of the FFSAS, led by their ex-comrade, was taken with worry in their thoughts but with dismissal in their stride. Their own superiors frowned upon any sort of hesitance, and they didn't want to show weakness to their comrades. The main problem with their arrival was this was the first time they had had any chance to gather any intel on the newly training that was being used. It's effectiveness was being tested every time they moved, but the amount of things they could gather was limited. Rider had apparently taught them where and how Scorpia would post observation posts, and the FFSAS had taken out those first before the rest of the operation to eliminate the amount of information gained.

Ignorance was the lead problem they were having. If they knew more about the rising but mysterious threat, more could be done in retaliation. As it was, that wasn't an option.

In the video surveillance room, the two on duty continued methodically scanning each image. Someone brought in another round of coffee for them, which they gratefully took. No kindness would have shown usually, but by doing that the person had a higher chance of being rewarded with the life-saving drink when it was _their_ turn for guard duty.

Some minutes later, the one looking at outside video feeds suddenly leaned forward. The other one glanced over. "Herton?" he asked. Herton gestured towards him, and the other leaned in. "What?"

Herton pointed at one of the feeds. A few seconds ago, something had disappeared behind a rise in the scenic view. After a minute's wait, it reappeared.

"What the hell...?" the other, Kiper, muttered. "Is this a school or something?"

"I don't know..." Herton responded. "It turned onto this road, and is coming this way. We have to report it."

Kiper looked at him, and they both laughed nervously. "You get to make the call!" Kiper said, dropping back into his seat. "I don't want to tell them that."

Herton sighed, and picked up a nearby phone. He looked at the other's expression, shook his head, and then dialed a number. "...Yes, I'm calling from the video surveillance room. ... There's a possibility. You won't believe me if I tell you, but I can send the feed through to you. ..." He shifted the phone, holding it in place with his head and shoulder, and used both hands to type out some commands to the computer. "Alright, you should have it?" Some swearing came from the other side. "Yeah, that's what we said too. Should we report this further?" Kiper was watching him for the response, so Herton shook his head in a negative at him. "Alright. If anything else strange pops up, we'll tell you." He set the phone down.

Kiper glanced back over at the odd video feed. "That's getting closer." He almost managed a concerned voice.

Herton looked at him, straight faced for about two seconds. Then both simultaneously burst into laughter. "And it'll be oh-so-dangerous when it arrives!" Herton snickered.

"Maybe we should run and grab rocket launchers to protect us from this new and evil threat!" Kiper responded.

"No, I don't think we'd ever be able to make it in time," the other security guard said, still laughing.

Three other Scorpia agents walked in, and the guards looked up, laughter fading for a second before they realized the trio was good-humored as well. "We just got off shift. Heard something about a weird surveillance feed, and were told to check it out. And our superiors were chuckling. Which is just wrong," one said.

Kiper and Herton both pointed to the feed. The new guys leaned in, and then started laughing. "You are doing an excellent job protecting us from... rodents," another one said, patting Herton's shoulder. "We're lucky to have you two watching us."

They looked back at the feed. A massive wooden object, thirty to forty yards long, was rolling towards them seemingly of its own accord. Painted plastic had been tossed over it, and two fake legs had been strategically placed on the front two wheels. The other two wheels were halfway, and the rest of the figure hung over on supports. Coming straight towards them, it gave the appearance of a massive rabbit walking horizontally. Its two paws were up in front of it, and its ears looked a little strange, like they were about to fall off. The whole thing was covered in fake brown fur.

About a hundred yards from the base, it stopped. The base had been dug out of a part of the mountain, so they weren't all that worried about being seen. Unless you knew where the entrance was, it was inaccessible.

Something started squirming under the tarp, and several men appeared out from under it in a hurry.

The Scorpias leaned forward, trying to figure out what they were doing. It didn't occur to any of them that they should report this.

Another few men popped out from near the front wheels, and seemed to put some sort of brake on them. Others slid out halfway, and did the same to the wheels there. Another round of men, the biggest, evacuated from the rabbit and got to work on tugging something. A part of the rabbit popped up, but it didn't fit with the rest. Two triangles slid up where its stomach was, and the middle section of the rabbit was forced to rise as a result. It now looked really fat.

Suddenly, a truck sped down the hill towards the rabbit. It skidded to a halt, and all the men rushed toward it. The two people inside rushed out, and they gathered around the back. Working together, they all lifted two rocks, one after another, and set it down on the ears of the rabbit.

One of the Scorpia frowned. "You know what it almost looks like they're doing?" he said. The others looked at him. "Building a..." His eyes widened. "...catapult..."

The men backed away from the Bunny Catapult, and one yanked something. The catapult launched the rocks forward, sending them flying to the Scorpia HQ.

The Scorpia in the video surveillance room, having turned their backs to seek shelter elsewhere in the building, didn't see the rest of the cleverness the FFSAS men had put forth. The second it hit the peak, the catapult was a standing rabbit, waving at them.

* * *

><p>:*:^:*:<p>

*Been there! Awesome place, but I can safely say there are no Scorpia bases there.

(((I have two ideas planned out for this story, each of which will take up a few chapters. One's a bit obvious, and the other was foreshadowed by something said in an earlier chapter. Can you guess what?


	4. Chapter 4

I just jumped over here from writing the next chapter of the continuing story on Takanami's account, so this is going to be... interesting.

;';^;';

The briefing room was full of snickering. Cub stood in the middle of it, watching all of them with an amused expression. They awaited his reply to their disguise for the catapult. Finally, he shook his head, dropping the stable expression, and burst out laughing. "Okay, okay, back up. Whose idea was it in the first place?"

Eagle shrugged. "I don't think we even know anymore. It was just kind of a group decision."

"Whatever it was, you guys sure had fun with it from the looks of things."

"Oh, we had a lot of fun, I assure you. Too much of it some would say."

Alex shook his head. "Alright, you guys party it out, but make sure someone's on guard duty. Stop complaining and assign shifts, idiots."

* * *

><p>He left the party behind him, Alex found a phone on the opposite side of the building. As soon as it was confirmed that he had the right number and was pushed through the lines to the right person, he asked, "What's this mission I got a letter about?"<p>

"There's a possible Scorpia attack that we may have a location on. Will your guys want to head undercover for a bit to make sure nothing happens, and stop anything that does?" the voice on the other end asked.

"It's this or training the newbies, which I think we can pass up on. Yeah. What're the details?"

"Once you're in this, you can't get back out."

Alex paused. Something was up with this mission. Usually, they were all to willing to push him into a mission. "Don't tell me the higher ups are getting nice, now."

"No, but you're gaining power, and they don't want you setting a fire of any sort," the voice honestly answered back. Alex snorted. The office people were always fun to talk to, as the ones he got put to were ones who tended to have the same feeling about the higher ups and what not as he did, and were almost always quite comical about it.

"Smart. What's iffy about this mission? Give me a hint at the very least."

The person on the other end gave an amused 'hmph'. "Oh, I don't know what you're talking about. But it's got something to do with you'll all have to go undercover, and you might not like where."

"Can't be worse than anywhere we've been before."

"Heh. It can be. I'm looking at your location right now."

"Do we get permitted weapons?"

The man on the other end laughed out right. "Haha! Of course that's what you want to know. Nope. You won't, I know, but the other's might be able to push the boundaries of it if you really feel you need weapons."

"Concealed ones, then."

"Oh, yeah, probably. I mean, we're not stupid. We know you'll take something in there. Better letting in the small things than the ballistic missiles."

"Yup. I'll talk to the guys, see what they want to do."

"How long will that take? I got other stuff to do, not that it's boring to talk to you."

"I'm walking to the room they're all in right now, so about a minute."

" 'Kay. What's it like being the youngest FFSAS teacher and MI6 spy?"

"It's a hell of a lot more fun to show everybody up. Here we are." He pushed open the door, and lowering the phone from his mouth, yelled at the group of guys, "Babysitting or mission?"

"_Mission_!" twenty people yelled back.

He raised the phone again. "Get that?"

"Loud and sorta clear. I got 'babysitting'?"

"Don't make me let them loose on you. When can we expect the further information?"

"Um, let me check on that..." The man on the other end shuffled some papers around. "Oh! How'd I guess. Return to Hell for briefing."

Cub mouthed 'Back to England' at the soldiers, and said into the phone, "When can we get out of here, then? Got any intel on that?" After a denial, he rephrased, "Can your techies share the information they hacked out of someone else's computers?"

"Oh, probably." After a pause, he said, "In about a week or two. Have fun, send some post cards, yada, yada."

Alex flipped the phone closed. Eagle grinned and asked, "We got a mission?"

"We got a mission."

* * *

><p>Cub glared at the sergeant. The sergeant stared back. For whatever reason, he had not been allowed into the briefing room, and was not happy about being kept in the dark. Hathur waited for the storm, but it didn't come. Cub knew it wasn't his fault, so he didn't say anything.<p>

Finally, the FFSAS men came in, amused and hiding some secret. After their dismissal, they left for the airport.

* * *

><p>"What is going on?" Alex asked for the seventh time in the last half hour. He was in one of the vans they had been given to travel to their destination, this one housing K-Unit and most of F-Unit. "I'm going to find out soon anyway."<p>

"We'll tell you when we're out of range," Viper muttered.

Alex shot him a look, just in time for the van to come to a halt. "Alright, everybody out. We know what we're doing?" Wolf called to everyone as he climbed out of the driver's seat. Alex gave a loud, "No!" while everyone else gave an affirmative. He strained to peer out the window, trying to look around Fox, and someone threw a bag at him. He looked down at it, and shot a look outside again as Fox moved.

He glared. "You have got to be kidding me."

"This," Pterradactyl said, pointing, "or training the newbies."

Alex's glare was redirected to him. "At least we could fling catapults at him." He gave a sigh of resignation, and slid out of the van as soon as it was no longer rocking with departed people.

"There's that," Eagle said to Hawk. The other nodded in agreement.

Alex gave a grunt. "Alright, how long did they say this is going to be for?"

"Just a week or two," Wolf replied. "You're going under as... you... and the rest of us are going to be subs, janitors, technical crew, whatever. The school was all too willing to comply in letting us slip in. They're sending a lot of their people on vacation right now, and the normal subs are with them. Once the time limit is up, we'll be gone. After that, sources say that there's a bare chance that Scorpia will still be planning on attacking, if our source was correct in the first place."

"Great, two weeks," the teen muttered. "School still starts at the same time?" he asked as he hefted the bag onto his shoulder.

"In two hours, yeah. Someone tell me why we got here at five in the morning?" Eagle called out, asking for an answer. He didn't receive one, but several others muttered complaints too. The other vans were starting to pull up, and the rest of the guys hopped out and joined the group already out there.

Wolf rolled his eyes. "We're going to look around the grounds and figure out the land. We can take this chance to move stuff in, too. And Cub can use this chance to get his sanity intact."

"Oh, this is high school," Alex responded. "None of us will leave with our sanities intact."

* * *

><p>"That just about completes our job for the morning," Spider said for the techies' part of things. "We can get the rest done without the kids seeing us. It's just basic stuff left, cameras and whatnot. What we already put down was for trip wires activated by remote and stuff, the random things that would not be inconspicuous to put down. So, we're ready to go from our end."<p>

Badger nodded. "The rest of us scoped out the area, and got a good grasp of the place. We're going to go over the place a lot more before the time comes, so we're good from that area too. The rest of you will take a look around later, I assume."

Alex stood in a corner, sulking and watching the proceedings out of the corner of his eye, and glaring at the ground of the conference room for the teachers that they were using as a base room. Falcon glanced at him, and said, "Are you going to maim us all later?"

"Quite possibly, yes."

"Just think, we'll have all those newbies back at Hell..."

Alex paused, and then gave a small but evil, "Heheh."

"Nice way to remind him," Boar said, clapping Falcon on the shoulder. "I'm sure they'll feel the pain we felt when we first went through his training soon enough. So, what do we do now that the boring stuff's all done with?"

"The boring stuff's just about to begin," Alex responded. "School, remember?"

"I'm sensing some resentment coming from your end..." Snake muttered. "Hey, you realize that they still have the school uniforms, right?"

If only looks could kill... "I hate you all." Alex stormed out of the room. Several snickers were held back until he had left, and the group went on with their preparations without having the gloomy teen watching over their shoulders.

When they were all ready, and just about to leave the room to prepare their classes or find their janitor gear or start repairing the school's technology, the way was blocked by their teacher. He had slipped into the school uniform, as suggested, and now he had a few rebuking words for it. "You all do realize that you can't walk around the halls with your military clothing on?" The group looked at each other, all with their standard military shirts and pants on. It wasn't their uniforms, but it wasn't easy to miss as something people at a school usually would not be wearing. "Just saying."

"Crap. How long do we have?" Warrigal asked.

"About half an hour," Alex cheerfully replied.

They left the room in a hurry to search.

;';^;';

About half of this was done, and then I left it for about a month. But now I'm planning to do a mass update as my anniversary for getting an account on this site (which I need to go back and mention in this first chapter...), so I need to finish it. And there's still more chapters to go, so I'll cut this off and start typing the next chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

Alex waited in his first classroom for the rest of the time until school, amusing himself by imagining all the ways that having five FFSAS units teaching and basically running a school could go wrong. There were still some teachers in the school and normal staff, because there weren't enough of the guys to cover all the positions, but they still made up a lot of them. Five minutes until they started letting the students come in, Fox more or less fell/ran into the classroom. He glanced once at his teacher, who waved, and then scrambled over to his desk, where he started searching through it for everything he needed.

Alex let out a bark of laughter. "Everyone else going to make it in time?" Fox lifted a hand and tilted it both ways, giving a more-or-less sign. "You do realize that school doesn't actually start for another half hour?"

Fox closed a drawer on his hand. He looked up. "What?" He tugged his hand out.

"School doesn't start for another half hour. They start letting the kids in to the school in about five minutes. Not everyone's going to get here at once."

Fox gave him a pained look. He simply shrugged.

The FFSAS man rolled his eyes at his teacher, muttered something under his breath, and continued searching for some papers, albeit less hastily. He pulled out the papers that said what he was supposed to do for the day, written out by the actual teacher, and set them down on the desk. When he found it, the role call list went on top of it. He fell into his seat. "Anything else I should know?"

"I don't know. Anything else you forgot?"

"Touche. What class am I teaching again?"

"Science. I think. I haven't been here in a year and a half. What's the paper say?"

Fox glanced at it. "Science."

"There you go." A horrible thought struck Alex. "What have we done?" he groaned. "Who all is teaching the classes?"

Fox put his head in his hands. "I don't want to think about it. Tell me how it goes later, will you?"

"I'll be doing my best to forget this whole day by then. Where are we all staying, by the way? We can't sleep in the school..." Fox made a face. "We're sleeping in the school? Alright, I guess that makes sense, but still."

"Yeah..." A thought struck Fox. "Wait, how old _are _you?"

"Um... You don't want to know?"

"He's sixteen, closing in on seventeen, give or take," said Tom as he swept into the classroom dramatically. "Nice to see you again, Alex. Did you decide that you missed the rest of us too much and had to return? That's so sweet of you..."

"If I _was_ missing all of you, it would be everyone _but_ you, Tom," Alex dryly responded. Fox was all too prepared to settle back and remain quiet, although he did take an interest in the conversation. "Are you seriously here on time for once?"

"Yeah. Staying with my mom, and she has to get to work on time, which means I have to get dropped off earlier," Tom said, making a face. He dropped his stuff on a desk next to Alex.

"Damn. They got the divorce papers sorted out?"

"A bit. It's still got some ways to go, but they're living in separate homes now. Which means I'm getting moved back and forth all the time."

"That sucks."

"Not as much as things probably do for you. What's with the guys all over the place? I doubt most of the teachers suddenly decided to depart the second you reappear. Unless they saw you coming, or something."

"Yup, they probably saw me coming," Alex replied. "No, seriously, I had nothing to do with that."

"Sure."

"Seriously, I didn't."

"I'm positive. Tell me, are they here to keep an eye on you because you did something stupid or protect us from terrorists?"

Fox, who had taken a sip of coffee, spit it out his nose.

Tom burst out laughing.

Alex rolled his eyes.

Wolf entered at that moment, and, not looking at either of the two teens, asked Fox, "Where the hell is room 32B?" Only then did he see Fox clutching his nose with coffee dripping from his hand, and Tom falling on the floor. "What?"

"I was right!" Tom exclaimed, punching the air with his fist. Through his hand, Fox asked where a water fountain was or a sink. Wolf pointed back down the hall, and Fox went past him, still holding his nose and grimacing. Wolf gave Alex an exasperated look.

"Don't ask," Alex replied. "Wait, are you _teaching_?" Wolf gave him a look. "I'm not sure who I feel more sorry for, the kids or you. 32B should be... hell, I don't know where that is. Tom, if you can gain some sort of dignity, do you have a clue where that is?"

"Nope. Who are you filling in for? I know where most of the teachers are, just not the numbers," Tom said, pulling himself back up onto his chair.

"A Mrs. Heather?" Wolf asked, looking at a slip of paper.

"Oh, she's next door to Mr. Hunt, the gym teacher. Did you see that when you came in?"

"Yeah."

"Mrs. Heather is on the right, beside the changing rooms and the bathroom."

Wolf made a face. "Damn, Eagle took the gym."

Alex laughed. "Oh, this is going to be interesting."

"So..." Tom said, a gleam in his eyes. "Was I right?"

"Right about what?" Wolf asked.

"More or less," Alex replied. "Nice to see you got the coffee out, Fox," he said as the mentioned man reentered the room. "Tom, not a word." His friend mimicked zipping his lips and throwing away the key, all done while smirking. "And if you try to annoy the full truth out of any of the guys, they will ground you. Literally."

"Yeah, how did he know?" Fox asked. The demand's effect was lessened somewhat when more coffee came out of his nose. He grabbed a tissue and tried to get the rest out by blowing it.

"Long story, tell you all later," Alex said, waving it off. He went silent as more students entered the room. Wolf walked away, easily moving through the crowd of people because he was Wolf. Tom still looked amused, and Fox threw away a coffee-stained tissue like he was aiming it at Tom's head.

"Can't you tell me what's going on?" Tom whispered quietly, begging for more information. Alex shook his head, and gestured at the kids around them. "Damn, missed my chance then. This isn't over yet." Alex gave him a look. "Seriously, not one scrap of information? Nothing to get me through the day?"

"Your ego does that by itself. You don't need me for that," Alex replied.

"I would normally say that hurts, but sadly, it's true."

The pair spent the rest of the time until their next class exchanging whispers, and Tom caught Alex up on everything that he had missed out on that the spy deemed important. When the bell rang, and Alex's head was full of information that Tom had pumped in, the two leaned away from each other and faced the front. The rest of the class kept talking, however, and Alex gave Fox a pointed look. The man looked a bit nervous, but before he could speak up and quiet the class, Badger's shout of, "_Shut up_!" from next door silenced them all. Alex stuck his face in his hand and quieted his laughs as best as he could. Fox shot him a glare, because he was biting the inside of his cheek, but was also standing in front of the class.

"Alright, I'm going to be your sub for the next two weeks, give or take," Fox said, with no confidence whatsoever as his humor faded. "You might also have me for science. Now, role call. I don't know any of you now, and I doubt I'll know you by the end of these two weeks. My point is, don't be offended when I continuously call you 'That person', 'You', 'blond in the back', whatever. If I do try to call you by a name, I bet I'll get it wrong. Anyway, role call. Adam Ather?"

"Here," someone called back from the front row.

"Timothy Bower?"

"Not here!" someone else shouted.

"Then you're grade's about to drop."

"Here!"

"I thought so. Haley Byer?"

"Present!"

It continued on, through all students in the class, and his eyes flickered ever so much in amusement when he got to Alex. He finally set the clipboard aside, and said, "Read or finish the homework you were supposed to do last night. I would say not to talk, but you're going to anyway, so I'll just ask for you to keep it quiet." Kids fished out their homework, and reclined in their seats for the next ten minutes, until the bell for the next class rang. When it did, the majority of students bounded to their feet and were out the door, chattering loudly. Tom stayed, and Alex detoured slightly to the teacher's desk to mouth, 'Good luck,' shot a warning look at Tom to not torture him, and left.

* * *

><p>Wolf glared at his first class of the day. He had been doing so for the last three minutes straight. Several were shifting uncomfortably in their seats, and others just avoided looking at him altogether. Eagle had come in to wait out the first few minutes of the day when he had no students, but had left to traumatize his students when the warning bell had rung. Some kids were still trailing in, and Wolf made it known without a word that he didn't appreciate it.<p>

"Those of you who were late are going to be having trouble for the next two weeks if you keep it up," he warned right off the bat. "As for the rest of you, don't do it. I don't pick favorites in class, and, to be frank, I didn't really want to be teaching in the first place. This means I'm in a bad mood, and will be in a permanent one for the next few weeks that I'm stuck with you all. Make it easy on me, and I won't be slaughtering the lot of you. Now, I'll also let you know that your last teacher left me no instructions that I can find, and the only things that I know about this class are that it's history class and I have your names. Now, what the hell was your teacher teaching before she left me with you?"

A girl raised her hand. "We were going over the Persian Gulf."

"What date were you at?"

"We were just about to enter into the Gulf War..." a kid said.

Wolf was smirking by then. "By chance," he said, "I know someone who just returned from that area, and was schooled on the area. I can teach this area of time and place. Now, what do you know about the region already?"

The kids exchanged looks.

"And don't bother with the hands, those annoy me." He wasn't about to say that every time someone had raised their hands in Cub's class they had met the floor. The 'sir' situation was handled quicker, because the punishment was more violent, and calling a teen sir was something they were all too happy to avoid.

"It's got a lot of oil, and we've been in the area fighting for it..." one of the kids said. Wolf grimaced at the twisting of the true facts, but made a note to correct it later and not now.

"A lot of the countries in the area have monarchies, but Iraq has a democracy," someone else said.

"Islam started there, and Mesopotamia started up in that area too."

"Women's status is different there."

"The phrase 'eye for an eye' comes from Mesopotamia, which was in present day Iraq."

"The countries there aren't really friendly." Again, Wolf winced inwardly at the generalization.

"The people there wear funny clothing," someone said, and some others snickered. Wolf outwardly rolled his eyes at that one. No one else spoke up, and so he started on the lecture of the day.

"They look at us and think the same thing about our clothing, I can assure you," he dryly said. "We wear 'funny clothing' too. Who knows why the Persian Gulf War started?"

No one spoke up at first, until someone said, "We invaded for oil and they didn't like it?"

Wolf shook his head. "I assume you all know who Saddam Hussein was. He was the king of Iraq for a long time. His country had been fighting a war, and had an economy based off of oil. To pay off debts, Iraq had to raise their price of oil. But oil was found elsewhere. With a new supply of oil, the prices of it dropped. Iraq couldn't keep their prices high and still make a lot of income. However, they still had those debts to pay off. They invaded Iran for oil, but was defeated and kicked out. When they had recovered enough, they invaded Kuwait." Wolf dragged the map down that was hanging from the wall, and pointed out the three countries. "Does anyone know who the country with the most oil is right now, that we know of?"

"Iraq?"

"No."

"Saudia Arabia?"

"Right. Saudia Arabia has the most oil, as of right now. Note it's position on the map. It's right below Kuwait and Iraq. By this time, countries elsewhere in the world were watching this area very closely. The worry became that Saudia Arabia would be invaded. A coalition of forces was sent to Saudia Arabia upon invitation of their king, and was sent to defend the country against any invasion from Iraq."

A teen from the middle section asked, "Why would they need protection? Saudia Arabia's pretty big. Couldn't they just defend themselves without any help?"

"They're big, yes," Wolf responded, "but their army wasn't good enough to fight off Saddam Hussein's. The combined force that was sent there was known as Desert Shield. At this time, the war hadn't started, and wouldn't start for a good while. We were waiting for it to begin, since it seemed inevitable. During this waiting period, two major things happened. One was that Iraq lit Kuwait's oil fields on fire. Not all of the oil was destroyed, but quite a bit was. The second was that Iraq dropped bombs into Israel. The first one was done because they knew we were about to move in, and, I believe, decided that if they couldn't have the oil, then neither could we. The second was done because once Israel made a counterattack, we would have to back them up too. The problem with this is that Israel does not get along well with its neighbors. If we backed them, our allies, who were, in some cases, sleeping right next to us, would most likely kick us out. However, Israel played it smart, and didn't make any counterattack.

"Finally, the UN gave Iraq an ultimatum. They had to get out of Kuwait by January 15. The day after, when they had made no move to evacuate, the air war started. When we moved in, Desert Shield became Desert Storm. It lasted several weeks, in which the air forces that we had blew up basically anything that we knew about and could think of that we wanted gone. Once they had completed that, the ground war began. Now, I must add this bit. Basically, the ground forces over there had been sitting in the desert, occasionally moving places, picking up supplies, that sort of thing. They were waiting for a war. From the time they entered Kuwait until the time the war was over, less than a hundred hours had passed. The Gulf War was over. They were a bit annoyed about that part, but it did mean that the whole thing was over that sooner."

Someone started to raise their hand, but remembered and put it down before Wolf could direct a glare his way. "How did they get supplies? Was it shipped in, or...?"

"Both. Some of it was shipped in, and some of it was bought in the area." Wolf continued to speak, answering questions as they came and asking a few of his own to see what the kids knew, until the period ended.

;';^;';

The last bit was so that you could see one of them teaching, and because I got carried away. ^^ My parents both served in that time period, and were ground crews in Saudia Arabia.

Holy cow, I'm typing these chapters fast. I'm a bit shocked. Although it's good, because this one and half of the last one were typed on Jan. 1, and I need this all finished by Jan. 2 for a mass update...


	6. Chapter 6

After three classes, one with Boar and another with Hawk, who had no end to his delight in torturing his teacher by endlessly pounding him with questions on economy, Alex ended up in a class with a regular teacher. His last teacher had also been regular, but luckily neither of them knew him. A year and a half absence can erase your presence like that. The only people who still remembered was a small number, only _every single stupid student in the school who had a pulse_. He had to grumble his way through most crowds, as they seemed intent on stopping him from ever getting to his class, pestering him about where he had been and why he came back. The last question was asked a lot more rudely than the first.

However, the teachers didn't tend to listen to rumors, and for that he was lucky. As he sat in his seat for his math class, Miss Lottu gave him no distrustful glare like the teachers had before he had left. Instead, she looked around the classroom for any empty chairs, and made two notations on a sheet of paper. She leaned her arms on her podium in the front of the classroom and looked at her students. She gave them all a small smile, and then said, " 'Morning. I thought I'd ask you all since you've been through three classes now, what do you think of all our subs? Some of them I'm a bit worried about."

"Like Mr. Ferkinson?" someone muttered. A few nearby snickered.

Miss Lottu gave a smile. "To name one, yeah."

"Oh, he was great!" a girl said, and Alex wondered if he had gotten his names mixed up. "When he started, he was kinda rough, and I thought it was going to be a long two weeks, but he really got into it once he realized we were going over the Middle East. He said he knew someone who had just gotten back from there a few months ago."

"Yeah, he was great," someone else agreed. "He got the class involved and stuff."

Several other people put in good notes for Mr. Ferkinson, and Alex made a note to figure out who had that alias. No way were they talking about Wolf.

"What about the other teachers?" the teacher asked.

"Mr. Tronden enjoyed his job a little too much..." one of the boys said. "Even the track kids were having trouble keeping up with what he wanted us to do." He and a few others nervously laughed. Alex recognized the name as Eagle's.

"Yeah, Mr. Vanuer was having too much fun, too..." someone else spoke up. And so it went. Alex was a bit surprised at who the kids liked and who they didn't, but in all he found it amusing to listen to. Some of these he was going to have to see for himself to believe.

"Alright," Miss Lottu finally said. "I'd like to listen to more, but we do have to get through the class. We have our own stuff to get done. I'm glad to hear the other classes are working out for you all. I was a bit worried, as I said. Now, Alex, we're going to have to get you caught up, so see me at the end of class so I can get you the work you need to make up."

Alex nodded, suddenly grateful as he thought about how quickly his locker was filling up that he wouldn't have to be carry it all home. If they were leaving in two weeks as planned, he wouldn't even have to complete the makeup work. Miss Lottu continued on, and he had to do his best to understand some of it. Several times he flicked back in the book to find out what she was talking about. He had been able to get through his economics class and his French class easily enough, since he had experienced a lot of what the economics class spoke about first-hand, and he still used French. His gym class had been humorous, as he was the only one able to complete everything Eagle had demanded of them. But then, he should hope so, since he had trained the man.

At the end of the period, Alex glanced at his schedule, and headed off to the cafeteria. Tom ran into him, and cheerfully dragged him to the big, open room that gave out the smell of food. "Hi, Al! How's your classes? My God, those guys are scary. One of them snapped down on a girl, and I was pretty sure she was going to cry, but then Mr. Tronden came in to ask how long the period was, and made a comedy out of it. I was pretty sure the two teachers were going to have a fight to the death from how Mr. Uilt was acting, but afterwards it became apparent he just had no idea of how he was supposed to teach. Where'd you pick up the guys?"

"Tom," Alex said, lowering his voice, "you really need to keep my involvement with them quiet."

"How can I when I don't know what it is?"

To shrug him off, he responded, "I'll let you know after school, just not now." He knew he had made a mistake the second he saw Tom's expression, which said that he would not be forgetting that promise anytime soon. "Look, I'm not in charge, I'm going to have to ask permission, and it might take a while." Tom's expression morphed to one of a mountain lion stalking its prey. "If it makes you any happier, you're probably going to witness it first-hand."

Tom clapped his hands. "Cool!"

"Most people wouldn't be cheering about that if they knew my line of work..."

"Yes, but I'm not most people. In fact, I'm just one person. Amazing, isn't it?" Alex rolled his eyes, and Tom dragged him over to the lunch line. "Alright," he continued, "you're not going to believe it. They actually improved their food! It tastes edible now! Somewhat, anyway."

Alex snorted. "Trust me, these days, I can eat anything that's edible, whether it tastes it or not. I've been spending the last few months in a place where food quality is the last thing they think about."

Tom looked horrified. "You poor soul." They passed through the lunch lie without saying anything else, and grabbed their food. They both paid, and Tom led them to a table that he knew would be empty.

Alex regained seriousness. "Tom, if something happens, we might need your help. There's probably going to be a panic, and we won't have time to deal with it. Will you be able to keep everyone under control? Or, at least, out of our way?"

Tom considered it. "It's a school of teenagers. Nothing can accomplish what you're asking for, but I can do my best to keep them out of your way." A grin split his features. "So long as you say please."

Three girls sat down at the table. "Say please to what?" one of the girls asked. It had been a long time, and Alex didn't recognize any of them, even if they seemed to know him. But of course, girls these days seemed to know everybody in the school. Alex shot Tom a look that asked him to handle it, and Tom caught on. His friend wouldn't have a clue of how the social things worked these days.

"Ah, nothing, long back story," Tom said as smoothly as he could. "Would you all mind, oh, leaving?"

One of the other girls smiled. "We thought you might like some company, was all. You two looked so lonely over here."

"We were quite content on our own, actually. Catching up on guy stuff and whatnot."

"Can we listen in?"

"No," Alex deadpanned. Tom gave him a look that said he could've handled that much more eloquently.

"Hi, Alex, it's been awhile," one of the girls asked, turning to him as two guys sat down, looking to be their boyfriends. "Remember me?"

"No. It's been years. You all were doing fine on your own, weren't you, before you had us to pester? So, can you depart? Soon? Now?"

"That's rude," one of the guys said. Alex gave him a look that he had learned from Wolf, one that could kill if it were possible. "Man, you two like your privacy. Can't handle five new people invading your bubble?"

"Maybe they just don't like you," Snake said as he sat down at the table. Alex shot him a look that said he owed him. Snake gave one back that said he knew it. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Thank you for asking!" Tom exclaimed. He turned to the others. "You see, here we have someone who doesn't present the rudeness and inconsideration that you all do. Instead of simply being rude, he asks permission, and respects boundaries. Can you take a hint and leave?"

"I think you were doing well up until that last sentence," Alex muttered.

The girl that seemed to be in charge took another glance at Snake, and huffed. "Fine. I can see we're not wanted here."

"It took you that long to figure it out?" Tom called after her as she left.

"They've gotten worse. How was that possible?" Alex pondered aloud.

"They get even worse in college," Snake said, a sad tone in his voice. "Part of the reason I left after my degree was done with, and didn't come back. Damn, I never thought I'd be stuck teaching." He turned to Alex. "Fo- Mr. ...Somebody, says that our friend here knows a bit about what's going on?"

Alex raised an eyebrow at the name use. "Yeah, Tom knows something or other. He worked with me on a mission once because I needed a distraction. He knows about the MI6 part of things, but not the most recent bit. I haven't been here in a year and a half, and I haven't been in contact with anyone here for that long as well. By the way, nice job scaring away the kids."

"It's a talent," Snake dryly responded.

"Wait," Tom asked, a bit of suspicion entering his voice. "What other bit?"

Alex exchanged looks with Snake, who shrugged. "Might as well tell him the last bit if you told him the first part. I don't think he'll leave you alone if you don't tell him the rest of it." Tom gave Alex a look that did nothing but support Snake's opinion.

"Fine," Alex said, and was about to start when Tom interrupted.

"Can you go ahead and tell me what's going on now too?"

"You're a pain in the ass. Anyway, remember Scorpia?"

"Yeah. You left me and biked several hours after a random boat because you thought it was related."

"It wasn't a _random_ boat!" Alex protested at the same time Snake muttered, "Nice spy skills." Alex glared at him, and then continued, "I got sent to train a bunch of guys in Scorpia, since I sort of became the only person to leave that group alive and admit to it. So I ended up with a group of twenty guys who all hated me, and I had to train them. It went very well and we all got ice cream."

"Shortly after you creamed all of us," Snake put in. "And I think it was alcoholic."

Alex gave a laugh. "Yeah, that was interesting... Wait, are you talking about my teaching skills in general, or the thing with the cow?"

"Both."

"Ah, yes. So, anyway, we're here now because there's been some information about Scorpia attacking the school."

Tom considered all this as he was fed it. "Hm... Yes, if an attack happens, I definitely think I can convince everyone else to not get involved and get out of your way." He started laughing. "Oh, yes, I've got a great idea!"

Alex gave Snake a worried look. "What have I done?"

Snake looked at Alex's friend. "Yes, what _have_ you done?"

"Do I want to know what you're thinking of doing?" Alex asked.

"No!" Tom cheerfully replied. "So, all the subs are actually guys from MI6 that you trained?"

Snake and Alex were shaking their heads before he finished. Snake snorted in amusement, and then said, "No, none of us are MI6. We're all from the Fanfiction Special Air Service, or FFSAS. We're military. Just curious, are we allowed to be telling him any of this?"

Alex shrugged. "As I told him, we're all going to be too busy if an attack comes, and we're going to need somebody to cool the kids down and get them and the teachers away while we get everything sorted out. Tom's the only person who's going to be of any help, since there's nobody else I can ask. So, in answer to your question, not really, but it'll be helpful later. By the way, nice job with the girl."

"I didn't mean to make her cry!"

"I never said you did, I just said you did a nice job of it, from what I've heard."

"It was an accident! And Eagle cleared it all up..." Snake muttered the last bit under his breath.

"That's called teamwork," Alex said to Tom. "So, what're you doing in here? Anything you need to report, or did you suddenly decide to socialize with the world of idiots whom we call teens?"

"Ah, neither. I had a question. I was wondering when exactly we were going to get pulled out of here. They never gave us a specific date in the briefing, and it'll be suspicious if we stay here more than two weeks, since that's what we're all telling the kids."

Alex gave him a level look. "If you'll remember, I wasn't in the briefing. For some reason, everyone thought I would refuse to go along with this mission."

"Fancy that," Snake responded. "So, that would be a no?"

"I've got no clue. When the day's over we can call and ask. By the way, who at the school knows what's going on other than us?"

"Principal and the vice principal. The teachers know something's going on, but they don't know what. I don't know if they know we're here for their protection," Snake replied. "They did a terrible briefing, didn't they?"

"Terrible," Alex agreed, and then muttered, "But it's not like I would know, now is it?"

"You certainly hold a grudge."

"You didn't know that before?"

"Hey, you both might want to know..." Tom said. "They don't announce the bell at lunch. They expect everybody to watch the clocks." He started to stand.

"How long do we have?" Snake asked.

"Two minutes to dump your trash and get to class. Hey, that rhymed!"

"Shit!"

;';^;';

Two and a half chapters in one day, and it's not even over. Wow.


	7. Chapter 7

"That was an interesting conclusion to the day," Cougar commented, hair still singed. Leopard held up a pair of scissors, but Cougar wisely declined his offer, making sure to take a few careful steps back just in case. The final bell had rung, and the FFSAS men had gathered into the conference room. In their free time, the janitors and technicians had gotten the table and chairs out of there so they would all have room to stand. A small foldable table had been brought in, and was buried in potential plans for a counterattack in case the Scorpia struck.

"Somebody tell me we accomplished something today," Raccoon, from G-Unit, groaned. He and Ocelot, from C-Unit had been stuck as janitors. Their's had been a boring job, just like Caiman (B-Unit) and Spider(also B-Unit)'s, as technicians, had been.

Caiman reported, "We got the remaining stuff laid down where we wanted it. Ocelot even had time to run a test, and we got some problems figured out. That's everything from our end." Ocelot had a look on his face that ordered everyone else to go nowhere near his job in questions.

Badger asked anyway. "What happened with the janitors?"

Ocelot would have strangled him if they had been alone, but simply said tightly, "What the hell did you want us to do? We push trash cans around the building and vacuum up crap on the floor. Oh, and Cougar?" Cougar seemed to fold inside himself. "You are so dead, and so cleaning up that mess you made. That, or your kids are doing it."

"Right," he said faintly.

"Think of it this way," Jackal said, "the rest of us have students to attend to. We won't be the first to react. You, Raccoon, Caiman, and Spider get to go out and kick some ass before the rest of us. Did any of the four of you find a way for us to carry weapons on our person without making it obvious?"

Spider shook his head. "We weren't able to get anything for the teachers, but the janitors and technicians can. You teachers are going to have to just stick any weapons you want in a desk where no one's going to see it."

"That sucks," Wolf muttered.

"Alright, Cub, how did we do?" Viper asked.

He shrugged. "Well enough. I think a lot of you certainly got the kids tamed, so you shouldn't be having problems, and Eagle may have murdered a few kids, and Snake certainly is getting around the school as a bastard, not to mention Boa is scaring kids left and right, but other than that you did fine. I heard some good things about you, too."

Falcon laughed. "Wolf and Leopard are certainly getting enthusiastic with their teaching. Who knew you two were history buffs?"

"We're teaching the current wars!" Leopard said defensively. "We all got an in-depth run down on that, and know more than most history buffs."

"Be careful, or the kids might make you stay and finish the year for them," Boar joked. The two did not find that prospect funny.

"Has anyone else got anything to report?" Pterradactyl asked. "Anything relating to the mission, or just in general?"

When no one spoke up immediately, Snake said, "We apparently have a liaison to the kids now in the case of an attack on the school. Tom Harris?" Fox shot a questioning look at Alex. "Cub, apparently, ran a mission with him, so he knows enough to help us out. He'll get the kids and teachers out of the way so we can do our work."

"How much does he know?" Wolf asked, simply curious.

Alex shrugged. "He ran a distraction for me so I could get into a building without being noticed, and made me tell him everything afterward and from then on. So he knows everything about my MI6 missions, and Snake and I just gave him a small explanation about what was going on now. He knows we're with the FFSAS, and that there's a potential Scorpia attack that might happen. He says he has an idea to get the others away. Him having an idea at all is a worrisome thought, but in all it should work and get us in the clear. I trust him. Somewhat. More or less. To get the kids away, just not in how he'll go about it."

The rest of them decided to let that rest, hoping Alex would clear that up.

"Hey, I happened to hear a snitch of something from the kids..." Eagle said, and Alex immediately worried. "What was this about drugs and alcohol?" His voice wasn't interrogating, and he wasn't suspicious. If anything, he looked a little amused.

Alex was not. "Those dumbasses are still going on about that? It's high school. I had to leave a bunch on MI6 missions, and the excuse was always that I was sick. Not many believed it, obviously, and the rumor went around with drugs and alcohol. I hate kids these days..."

Wolf snorted. "You're technically a kid yourself."

"Immature kids."

"That too," half the room added.

"You know what I mean. Onto important things. Where are we sleeping?"

No one in the group dared move, in case someone had come up with an answer. "Oh come on," Alex said condescendingly. "No one thought about that before?"

Eagle grabbed car keys, and Raccoon and Hawk followed him out of the room. "We'll grab some stuff from a store!" Hawk called over his shoulder. "Any special requests?"

"The essentials!" Alex called before anyone else could ask for anything. He gave a warning look to the others, especially the ones who he knew had been about to ask for caffeinated beverages. None of them would be stupid enough to drink on the job, but caffeine wasn't alcohol. The ones in particular gave him beaming smiles.

"Anything else?" Eagle called back. He got no response, and a few minutes later one of their vans drove off.

Wolf abandoned the group. "If that's it, I'm looking over the stuff the teacher left. If I can find it. I got lucky today."

Jackal nodded. "Yeah, I'll do the same. Good luck, people!"

Most of the other teachers left too. Snake shrugged. "I got it all down. Mine left very clear instructions, and it wasn't rocket science. How's your day been? Sort of like bring-a-veteran-to-school day, huh?"

"I don't think we have those."

"Well, it's sort of like what it would be if you did," Caiman said.

"A bit, I expect. Did anyone but me notice that all the people who just left grabbed a gun when they left?" Alex asked.

"They're probably trying to figure out how to make them concealable in the clothes they have to wear for school," Viper asked.

"You and Snake already figured it out?"

"Yup," the two answered simultaneously. No one bothered to mention that none of the 'teachers' were supposed to be carrying weapons, period, from what the briefers had said. That was because none of them cared.

* * *

><p>The group woke up to stiff backs and bad attitudes. Many cups of coffee eradicated that feeling, until someone muttered that it was four in the morning, and they had all gotten up early out of sheer habit. Still, none of them went back to sleep, and got to work. They went back over their files and what the teachers had left them, or checked the cameras that had been laid out and any traps. The teachers had all been asked to not allow any open windows, because they had set up something over the windows to send out a silent alarm if anything hit them. A bird had set it off yesterday, but the technicians were adamant that it would be helpful against any silenced sniper rounds. When someone had asked if it would stop the bullets, they said it would. The windows themselves had been replaced with bullet-proof ones. When they left, the windows would have to be taken back, though.<p>

At around six, some of them ran out of things to do. Hearing this, Cub sent them all on a run outside the school with a grin. However, he was bored as well, and joined them. The run they went on was one that was relatively easy for them, but one that the students had been complaining about when Eagle had sent them out.

They finished it one round of it, and half of them continued on to pass the time before school. The other half went into the gym and sparred.

By the time school started, they had all made themselves presentable and were ready to face the day.

* * *

><p>The next week and a half passed the same way. The students got to know their teachers, but their teachers didn't really care, and Fox, true to his word, still could not tell one kid from the other unless one was his annoying teacher. The principal and vice principal were uncharacteristically vacant from the halls, and Alex suspected it was because they were working in their offices with the whole mess. Alex felt a little sorry for them, with all the paperwork they no doubt had to fill out.<p>

On the Wednesday of the second week they had been there, when half the students were gone on a field trip, the subs were requested by intercom to head to the conference room. Fox made an excuse, and grabbed Alex on his way out, since the teen had been in his class at the time. The 'subs' passed each other in the hall as they went to the room, and all made it there as quickly as they could without making it suspicious.

The principal was in there, and looked frantic. He shot a glance at Alex, who didn't respond to the confused look. Wolf stopped him from asking by saying, "Something wrong?"

The worried man shrugged nervously. "Your sergeant called, and said he needed to talk to all of you. What's going on? Are we under attack?"

"Not that we know of," Ocelot said, having come in along with the other Raccoon, Spider, and Caiman. "Can we talk to him?" he asked impatiently.

Badger gave him a look that told him not to ruffle the already ruffled man, while Warrigal took the cell phone and put it on speaker phone. "Serge?" he asked.

"Yeah. Just thought you might want to know, but there's some activity around you being reported by some techies back over here. We don't know if it's Scorpia or not, but we'll know soon enough," their sergeant's familiar voice said through the phone.

"I sense a sudden need to let school out early," Eagle said.

Viper frowned. "That'd be the best idea to keep everyone safe, but they'll just wait until they can do it again. Besides, we'd tip them off that we know they're coming."

"But what if they try to shoot anyone!" the principal asked. His gaze flickered to Alex again.

The spy replied, "We put in bullet proof windows. The students will be fine if they try a sniper, and we'll stop anyone before they can get through the doors."

Boa, the closest to the man, murmured, "Don't question his presence here. It's a long story."

"We should head back to our classes," Jackal said. He signaled for everyone to be silent. He pointed to the ceiling, and they could all hear the rain echoing off the roof. "We can say there's a tornado, and everyone needs to get into a secure location. Ocelot, feel like pulling the fire alarm?"

"Always wanted to."

"Well, Spider's going to pull it, but you get to announce over the speakerphone that everyone needs to get to a secure location."

Ocelot shot him a glare.

"Wait, I thought you said everyone was going to a secure location," the principal said. "If the alarm goes off, the students are all supposed to go outside, and they will, even if you announce there's a tornado beforehand."

"We turned off the alarms, and fixed the fire alarm so it'll lock down the building," Raccoon explained. "We'll put it back the right way once this is all over," he said as the principal took on a pained expression.

"Everyone knows the rest of the drill?" Wolf asked the FFSAS men, who all responded heartily. "Then let's wait for the storm. Head back to where you're supposed to be, and we'll get this done. Except... Cub. We need to get the police to work with us. As soon as the speaker phone tells everyone to get inside, that's the signal that the window alarms went off or someone's making a move towards the building. We suspect they'll try snipers first. Call the police then and get their help."

"Why not before?" the principal asked.

"Because if we do it before," Alex calmly explained, "Scorpia can still back out. Once the police come, they know their only option is to go forward with it and take hostages, or the people on surveillance, who will most likely be snipers, and the police will take them out on their retreat. This town's police won't be able to creep up on them to prevent them from being alerted."

The teachers left with that final explanation, and Ocelot headed to the front office with the phone to be ready for the announcement. Spider found the nearest fire alarm pull, and waited. Alex went with Raccoon and Caiman to an empty computer lab, and waited for the time to call the police.


	8. Chapter 8

Wow. Four and a half chapters in one day. Don't look at me like that. This won't be happening again. Wow... (But then, they're shorter than my usual length...)

;';^;';

"Call's in," the secretary quietly alerted Ocelot, with the phone to her head.

She put it on speaker phone, and the sergeant said, "Knock down the dominoes."

Ocelot pressed the button on the speaker phone, and said, "We have an impending tornado, and as a precaution we need everyone to get into their tornado rooms and into the tornado position. Follow your teacher and listen to their directions." He knew that all his comrades were hating him at the moment, as they had no idea where the rooms were. "As soon as it's clear, we'll let you know."

Elsewhere, Spider pulled the fire alarm pull. No blaring alarm went off, but the doors all locked themselves. The keypads would not open them, no matter what was programmed in, not until the doors were all manually reopened by the pass code that the techies had built into the system.

At the same time, Alex was dialing the police office. "999, what's your emergency?" a woman on the other end asked.

"I need to be put in contact with the police," Alex replied. "A school is currently under fire."

The woman's voice became stunned. "Are you sure?"

"The police, please."

She switched his line over to the police, while at the same time the FFSAS men who had finally managed to figure out where the tornado rooms were led their classes through the halls. The teens filed into the rooms, and curled their legs up while putting their hands over their heads and necks.

Alex entered the room with Wolf's, Fox's, Leopard's, and Falcon's classes inside. His pissed expression said it all, but he still hissed to them, too quiet to be heard by anyone else, "They won't bring in backup!"

"Why the hell not?" Leopard demanded.

"They say they're looking at security footage from a store across the street, and nothing's wrong!"

"Shit..." Wolf muttered. "Alright, run down to the front office, and see if the sergeant's still on the line. If he is, he can call down and bully them into it."

Alex turned to go, but paused. He gave a smirk. "Actually, I can do some bullying of my own. With rank comes power. I'll be right back." He departed, but Raccoon and Caiman stayed behind to wait for his return. He wasn't back for another five minutes, but when he returned he was triumphant. "They should be giving us help anytime now."

A grenade went off. A lot of the teens cried out in surprise. The room was the nearest to the east doors, and they could clearly hear the grenade explode not ten yards from them. Heavy, running footfalls came in after. The FFSAS men didn't waste a second. Wolf kicked the door open, and Caiman went past him. He darted across the hall, firing as he went. Wolf leaned out the door, and fired towards the doors. Raccoon ducked under his arm and ran to the side of the hall Caiman was on.

There were no more footfalls.

"What the hell is going on!" a boy yelled. Alex recognized him as one who had been pestering Tom and him.

"We need to get the students away from the doors," Alex said. "I'll run down to the front office and hope everyone else thought that was lightning. Ocelot can announce that everyone needs to move closer in to the building. The gym or cafeteria, I suppose. The gym doesn't have windows, and I think we can get everyone to fit in there."

"If we want everyone to think thing's are normal, then that doesn't work. The gym's too high. They don't allow big rooms like that to be tornado rooms in case the rafters fall," Raccoon said, disagreeing. "The same with the gym. Get Ocelot to round everybody up into four of the big halls, and we'll be able to split off and get the entrances covered, since it seems like they're not interested in knocking."

"The main hall is big enough to get most of the students in, and you can use some of the nearby rooms and halls to fit the rest of the kids in," Tom suggested, near Alex's foot. "The ones in this classroom will probably spill the beans to the others about you going all James Bond on those guys, but you'll have everyone in one place."

"It'll be easier for Scorpia to take us all out, then," Falcon disagreed, although not harshly.

Leopard shook his head. "This school isn't that big. If they take one part, they'll have all of it unless we're together and can formulate a plan. Don't need anyone getting hit in friendly fire," he added on dryly. "And we'll have a stronger force to blow them off with."

"Any disagreements?" Alex asked, but none of them had anything to add. "Okay. Caiman, run down to the north side and tell the rest of the guys what the new plan is. Raccoon, do the same with the west, and I'll grab the south." The other two split off, and Alex asked the students inside the room, "Are there any other tornado rooms in this area?" All the kids who responded gave a negative, so Alex ran off to the north side of the building.

* * *

><p>Murmurs were already beginning, and distrustful looks were shot at the subs. The regular teachers were harnessing the students back, while the FFSAS split off and started coming up with an idea for what to do. Alex frowned, noticing the lack of police support the sergeant was reporting to them through the phone. Sergeant Hathur had one of his guys call the police station when he grew tired of waiting.<p>

"He says that they're sending guys over," Hathur finally said. "You'll have your backup soon." After a pause, he asked, "Do you have a plan?"

"We're working on it..." Wolf said. "Our original plan for being grouped in the main hall didn't include the eastern doors being blown off. We needed those in place."

"That sucks. You guys got a backup plan?"

"It required a lack of snipers..."

"... Well, damn."

"Yeah..."

"Kids under control?"

"Yeah. Cub says he's got someone who'll cool everybody else down if things start to get out of hand, but nothing's happened yet, so he hasn't done anything."

"Well, whatever you all decide upon-"

One of the teenagers stood up, carrying that haughty aura with him that all teenagers possess and regularly seem to use. "Alright, cut the crap, what the hell's going on here? This isn't some tornado warning or drill! Somebody just got shot back there!"

Angry agreements backed him up.

"Kid, sit back down so we can get this sorted out," Badger ordered. He and the teen glared at each other, but Badger stared him down. The teen huffed and regained his seat. "The explanation behind all this is complicated, and involves things that we don't have time to explain. It'd be stupid to ask you to remain calm, but I'm going to ask you to not get in our way. Alright?"

Nobody agreed with him in the student audience.

"If each unit goes down a different direction, with one staying here," Viper murmured to the FFSAS men, "we can hold the area. The group in the center can send up an alarm if we need backup from the others."

Alex grimaced. "Don't tell me I have to stay behind and deal with the legalities."

"You have to stay behind and deal with the legalities," four people said at once. He glared at all of them.

"Fine. Head your own ways. We still need confirmation that you all can act from the local police, but assume that you can. I'm sure it can be forgiven if you're firing on people trying to storm the building," Alex said, still not happy about his placement in everything.

"Alright," Wolf started.

As he did, a group of kids stood up and made their way to the FFSAS men. "We deserve an answer!" the lead one demanded. Alex shot a look over at Tom, who raised an expectant eyebrow. He didn't move, however, until Alex mouthed, 'Please'. With a grin that was quickly hidden, Tom stood up and walked over. He put a hand on the shoulder of the person, and sighed wearily.

"I can explain what's going on, but we better stay out of their way," Tom said with a heaviness in his voice. "I happen to know what's happening here." He addressed the whole crowd of teens. "As his friend-"

"Oh boy," Alex muttered under his breath, already not liking where this was going.

"-I didn't say anything. I worried, yes, but I didn't say anything."

The FFSAS guys all looked at each other, also a little worried.

"So when I saw all his friends from the drug ring he was involved in turn up here as subs, I didn't say anything. Now, I wish I had."

The five units looked at Alex. He stared open-mouthed at Tom. All the students were riveted to the black-haired teen while he spun his tale of woe, and Alex's struggle.

"You see, the rumors were right. Al started disappearing from class to help smuggle and run drug operations. He got involved in some bad situations, and we all know how he returned to school. Occasionally, after school I saw some of the guys he dealt drugs with. I see them all here now, except for a few who I guess are running with the same gang. But there's an opposing gang in the area, and as far as I can make out, we're all caught in a drug war right now. They don't care about us, so as long as we all sit tight and don't get involved, we should all be safe."

The FFSAS guys all looked at each other, and Alex held his head in his hands. Jackal rubbed the bridge of his nose. Warrigal scratched his head. Viper suppressed a small smile. Eagle gave a small snort as he tried to stop himself from laughing.

Hathur's voice rang through the silent hall as he deadpanned, "Well, God, Eagle, don't choke on your crack."

The units lost it.

Alex cracked up along with them, shaking with laughter. Several guys were on the ground laughing. The students looked confused, and Tom had to turn his back on them and stiffly walk behind a wall before he could join them in laughing.

"Okay, okay," Wolf said through his laughter. "F-Unit, get the south side. C-Unit, the east. B-Unit, take the north, and G-Unit stays here. We'll take the west."

"Fun sniper," Falcon called back over the sound of laughter.

"No, the term's crack sniper," Hawk returned.

The laughter increased.

"Alright guys, you heard him, go," Badger said, gesturing for them all to move. He led his team down the east hallway, then yelled back, "It's a might drafty down here!"

"No shit!" Jackal yelled back, and swept his unit to the north side. F-Unit went the opposite direction, having to move through the crowd of kids to do so. K-Unit departed without a word. That didn't mean they weren't still snickering.

Alex rolled his eyes, but grinned. He didn't look at Tom, knowing he would loose it if he did. He instead turned his attention to the phone, where the sound of laughing could be heard. "I'm glad your attempts at humor have yet to fade, Hathur," he said.

"Yup," the sergeant replied back, and in response to the tone in which he said it, the others in the room with him laughed.

"Hey, who else is in there?"

"The rest of us," Tyler called through the phone. "Didn't think we'd miss your first mission, eh?"

"Second!" Scayter corrected. "They had the other one before now."

"Yeah, but this is there first one where they actually use what he taught them."

"Didn't he teach them a thing or two about catapults? And there was that massive rabbit one in their first mission..."

"You win, second mission."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Is anyone over there actually doing any work, while we're over here running our butts off?"

"I am! These blasted idiots keep getting in my way, though," Bockson yelled through the phone. He ran the communications training for Brecon Beacons. "Hathur decided we'd give you a hand with this one, instead of having the actual guys who are supposed to do it run your communications. I don't know why, but his word is like God's around here, so I got stuck with those two fools snickering and giggling like school girls while I'm trying to do my work."

"I resent that statement!" a teenage girl yelled out.

"Yet it's so accurate," Alex muttered.

"I'm sure you'll get plenty of dates in the future," Tyler dryly commented.

"Whether I do or not, do we have permission from the local PD to do our jobs?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, we're still working on that..." Scayter said.

Hathur stared at his companions while Alex had to settle for staring at the phone. "You didn't think that would be important to have now?" he asked.

"They're comms people are being bitches, I'll tell you," Bockson replied irritably. It took me five minutes to get your message across. _Five minutes!_ If I were running that part of their offices, there would be no excuse for this sort of thing."

"Right, but you're not. So can you slay them down with your invisible verbal sword and get us some confirmation for us?" Alex asked pointedly.

"What do you think I am, some new guy to this? I'll have your confirmation, just give me a minute." Bockson's voice became quieter, and Alex could hear him yelling at someone in the background.

"Glad I'm not on the other end of whoever he's talking to," Alex muttered into the phone.

"Yeah..." Tyler agreed. "So how're things going over there? Our guys doing some ass kicking yet?"

"There was a shootout, yep. Took out about five guys, but it was probably just a recon at the time. Or there's a group behind the corner of the outside of the school building waiting for a chance to move in," Alex responded. "Do we have an angle from that view?"

"Way ahead of you. Already checked it out, but no angle. Sorry."

Hathur interrupted, saying urgently, "Bockson got your confirmation. You're all in the clear."

"Great. Let me know when it looks like anyone's moving, will you?" Alex barely had time to finish his sentence before Bockson yelled out a warning.

"They're coming in on the north side! You have half a minute!"

Warrigal gave his teammate a look, and Coyote shot off down the hall to the north hall to give a warning.


	9. Chapter 9

a/n: And now I'm to five and a half chapters in one day... (Although it's in the morning now, technically, but if you count one extended period it's still one day.) Truly a one-time event. Last chapter!

;';^;';

"Can we tell how many are left?" Alex asked after Coyote disappeared from sight. "Including the ones that are knocking on our doors?"

"About ten or twelve." Bockson was silent, and they could all hear the sounds of a fight breaking out from the north end. "Incoming from the other three sides!" Without a word, the rest of the G-Unit split up and shot towards their targets. Gunshots went off, and the students visibly paled. Some yells echoed down from the sides.

Alex was unperturbed. He closed his eyes, and it sounded the same as when it did on the firing range. The yelling from guys sparring nearby would filter down in between the gunshots. He opened his eyes, and it occurred to him he was the only one from the FFSAS left in safety.

Then something _else _occurred to him. "Wait, Bockson... in _all_ there's ten or twelve guys from Scorpia?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, why?"

Alex slapped his palm against his head. "They'll be fine," he deadpanned. "Divide that into four, and that's three guys for each side. We've got five people in each place. I'm just saying."

Hathur gave a grunt. "Somebody didn't do their math."

"They're probably running low on staff, since they're running people all over to fix what you guys have screwed up," Tyler pointed out. "They couldn't run a full-scale attack on a school that they expected to be full of teenagers and teachers. That'd be stupid."

"No, but it would also be stupid to run a low-scale attack on a building with ten guys in it trained by you three," Alex pointed out.

"And the devil himself."

"Damn straight."

As the last words echoed through the halls, the gunfire began to cease. Alex could hear the unit leaders calling out for reports from their comrades, and the others answering them.

Coyote, Warrigal, Boa, and Raccoon trotted back in to the central area. "Hey, they want to know if we should expect anything else," Boa said.

"It doesn't look like it," Hathur said, "but they should stay there just in case anything else comes up. The police are sweeping out the places they were hiding out in now. It doesn't look like there's anyone else."

"Cool," Coyote replied, and headed back the way he had come to report the news. The rest of G-Unit followed his example, but they returned soon enough in case they had to run another message.

* * *

><p>By the time the grounds had been officially secured, the units were all bored, and the students were starting to get shifty again. The five units gathered together in the main hall, and asked if they needed to stay any longer. Hathur told them to come home.<p>

As the units went off and packed up anything they had brought, and replaced the windows and fixed the fire alarms, the police chief and a few others from the police department came in to the main hall. The other two went among the group, asking if everyone was okay or if anyone had been hurt. The police chief, however, asked who was in charge. Everyone pointed at Alex.

He raised an eyebrow, but turned to the spy. "Alright, who are you?" he demanded.

"Alex Rider. Thanks for sending us the confirmation and letting us do our job. It was a great relief to know we had your support."

The police chief stared at him. "Wait. Wait a second. _You're _Alex Rider?"

"Yes," he replied. He portrayed nothing of the usual teenager vibes, and was instead the MI6 spy and FFSAS instructor that he gave the appearance of when dealing with formalities and legalities.

"This has nothing to do with drug wars, does it?" a nearby high schooler demanded.

"Speaking of which, Tom!" Alex called. His friend waved. "What the hell?"

"I told you you wouldn't like it!"

"Yeah, well, some warning about that would've been nice!"

"But it was funny, wasn't it?"

Alex gave him a half-hearted glare before answering the girl's demand. "No, this has absolutely nothing to do with drugs." He turned back to the police chief. "Was there something you needed?" he asked without being rude.

"I'd like to know what's going on."

"Here?"

"Right here, right now."

"In front of a school of students?"

Scayter unhelpfully pointed out, "They're going to have to sign the OSAs anyway."

"Fine. We're from the FFSAS. Here with me is a group of five units from the FFSAS specially trained in counteracting against the terrorist group Scorpia. We were given a warning that it was a possibility that this group would be making an attack against this school, so we requested that these men fill in. However, Scorpia is known for having spies in places you wouldn't expect, and having them everywhere, so we couldn't let the local PD in on this defense. I'm very sorry about the deception. I can give you a more detailed report later, but I have some things I need to settle out."

With students staring at them, the police chief asked suspiciously, "And why are you here?"

"Pardon?"

"Why were you with the FFSAS group, and in charge, and why did they attack this school."

Alex debated for a moment on whether or not to answer him. Then a vengeance struck, and he made sure to watch the students out of the corner of his eye when he said, "I went to school here before I was recruited into MI6. One of my missions ended with me going into Scorpia, and I was the only documentation of Scorpia methods and techniques. Soon after, the FFSAS requested some info on them, and MI6 sent me over. I ended up liking the position, though, and am staying on permanently with them."

Alex heard Scayter murmur in response to the 'permanently staying on' bit, "Does this mean more catapults?"

"I came out with the units to supervise. Scorpia attacked this school because, I suppose, they weren't happy about my defection. Not to mention we sorta destroyed one of their places recently, which they certainly were not pleased about."

The students' reactions were worth it. But he was generous, and didn't smirk or give any other outward sign of successful revenge.

He did give an innocent smile, however, which looked considerably creepy after his brief speech.

"Is there anything I can help with?" the chief slowly asked.

"Unless you can finish my paperwork for me or get the OSAs done with and over, no, unfortunately not."

The chief nodded, and left to confer with his guys.

Temptation took him. Alex saw Tom give him a thumbs up, seeing what he was going to do, and Alex gave a small smile in response. To the group of kids still watching him, he said, "Bet you won't be too quick to judge again, will you now?"

That was the last they saw of Alex Rider ever again.

* * *

><p>Back in Hell, the five units celebrated. They laughed again over what Tom had done, and many of the group asked Alex if his friend was planning to go into the government to work in the department that covered things up. Watching the news would certainly be more interesting, especially for those who knew what had really happened.<p>

The party was brought to a halt when sergeant Hathur entered. He raised an eyebrow at their lack of alcohol, which he was a bit surprised but mostly proud about, and the continued on with what he had come in to say. "Some of the instructors are still waiting on a word back on whether or not you'll be teaching the new recruits."

"I think we've done enough teaching for a while," Falcon muttered.

Alex smiled at that. "Yeah, I think we'll keep that down for a while. Besides, they should probably get some sort of experience before they have cows landing on their roofs. We'll give them some time before then, I think. Also, y'know, we need to procrastinate."

Hathur looked over all them. "Yeah, I can see that you're doing quite well at that. But you're still going to need to train another batch at some point."

"Can we come in and help?" someone asked from the back. Alex didn't know who. The group waited.

"Why the hell not. Knock yourselves out."

"Woo!"

The sergeant sent a smirk Alex's way, which was labeled 'Return to Sender'. Hathur's smirk faded, and he pulled Alex aside from the party. Any of the guys who saw made no motion to follow. "Rider, MI6 just sent us a message," he said.

Alex didn't look happy about that. "Let me guess. There's a mission they want me to do."

"How'd you guess."

"Dumb luck. I'll send them a notice about my resignation."

The smirk returned, but slyer. "You're not technically an agent."

Alex grinned. "That makes my spot here official then."

;';^;';

Alright, people. NO MORE SEQUELS FOR THIS. But my oh my, I loved writing my OC's. Did anyone else notice but me that for until a certain chapter in here, B-Unit had two unmentioned people and C- and G-Unit were missing one?

I hoped you liked this extremely fast update, and I also hope you'll review, since I got so many requests for a sequel. And as I was writing these last five and a half chapters, two people favorited the first one. You were encouraging me, I know.


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